Categorization of Summarized Information

ABSTRACT

A system for categorizing transactions includes a collection function gathering information concerning transactions, including at least date, description and amount of the transactions, for a particular person or enterprise, and a processing function categorizing individual ones of the collected transactions according to at least part of the transaction description.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED DOCUMENTS

The present invention is a continuation of patent application Ser. No.11/293,350, filed on Dec. 1, 2005, which is a continuation in part (CIP)to patent application Ser. No. 09/737,404, filed on Dec. 14, 2000 andabandoned on Apr. 2, 2008, which is a divisional of Ser. No. 09/323,598filed on Jun. 1, 1999 and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,199,077 on Mar. 26,2001, disclosures of which are incorporated herein in their entirety atleast by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is in the field of Internet navigation includingvarious communication means and connection technologies and pertainsmore particularly to methods and apparatus, including software, forgathering summary information from users or enterprise-selected WEBsites and presenting the information as HTML to the user using either apush or pull technology.

2. Discussion of the State of the Art

The information network known as the World Wide Web (WWW), which is asubset of the well-known Internet, is arguably the most complete sourceof publicly accessible information available. Anyone with a suitableInternet appliance such as a personal computer with a standard Internetconnection may access (go on-line) and navigate to information pages(termed web pages) stored on Internet-connected servers for the purposeof garnering information and initiating transactions with hosts of suchservers and pages.

Many companies offer various subscription services accessible via theInternet. For example, many people now do their banking, stock trading,shopping, and so forth from the comfort of their own homes via Internetaccess. Typically, a user, through subscription, has access topersonalized and secure WEB pages for such functions. By typing in auser name and a password or other personal identification code, a usermay obtain information, initiate transactions, buy stock, and accomplisha myriad of other tasks.

One problem that is encountered by an individual who has several or manysuch subscriptions to Internet-brokered services is that there areinvariably many passwords and/or log-in codes to be used. Often a samepassword or code cannot be used for every service, as the password orcode may already be taken by another user. A user may not wish to supplya code unique to the user such as, perhaps a social security number,because of security issues, including quality of security that may varyfrom service to service. Additionally, many users at their own volitionmay choose different passwords for different sites so as to haveincreased security, which in fact also increases the number of passwordsa user may have.

Another issue that can plague a user who has many passwordedsubscriptions is the fact that they must bookmark many WEB pages in acomputer cache so that they may quickly find and access the variousservices. For example, in order to reserve and pay for airline travel, auser must connect to the Internet, go to his/her book-marks file andselect an airline page. The user then has to enter a user name andpassword, and follow on-screen instructions once the page is delivered.If the user wishes to purchase tickets from the WEB site, and wishes totransfer funds from an on-line banking service, the user must also lookfor and select the personal bank or account page to initiate a fundstransfer for the tickets. Different user names and passwords may berequired to access these other pages, and things get quite complicated.

Although this preceding example is merely exemplary, it is generallyknown that much work related to finding WEB pages, logging in withpasswords, and the like is required to successfully do business on theWEB.

A service known to the inventor and described in the related case listedunder the cross-reference to related documents section provides a WEBservice that allows a user to store all of his password protected pagesin one location such that browsing and garnering information from themis much simplified. A feature of the above service allows a user toprogram certain tasks into the system such that requested tasks areexecuted by an agent (software) based on user instruction. The servicestores user password and log-in information and uses the information tolog-in to the user's sites, thus enabling the user to navigate withouthaving to manually input log-in or password codes to gain access to thelinks.

The above-described service uses a server to present a user-personalizedapplication that may be displayed as an interactive home page thatcontains all of his listed sites (hyperlinks) for easy navigation. Theapplication lists the user's URL's in the form of hyperlinks such that auser may click on a hyperlink and navigate to the page wherein login, ifrequired, is automatic, and transparent to the user.

The application described above also includes a software agent that maybe programmed to perform scheduled tasks for the user includingreturning specific summaries and updates about user-account pages. Asearch function is provided and adapted to cooperate with the softwareagent to search user-entered URL's for specific content if such pagesare cached somewhere in their presentable form such as at the portalserver, or on the client's machine.

In addition to the features described above, it is desirable that thesoftware agent in conjunction with the search function be enabled tonavigate to any URL or group of URL's, provided as input by a user orotherwise deemed appropriate by the service provider, for the purpose ofproviding summary information regarding updated content for each URL,which may be presented as an HTML information-page to the user.

What is clearly needed is a method and apparatus that can independentlynavigate to user-supplied or known URL's, login with the appropriatepassword information at each URL (if required), and return requestedsummary information to a user in the form of a human andmachine-readable HTML document. Such a system would provide an effectivesummarization service wherein important information may be presented toa user without requiring that the user invoke hyperlinks at his personalportal home page. Such a unique system would have even further value ifcategorization of collected information could be done for users in avariety of ways.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A system for categorizing transactions is provided, comprising acollection function gathering information concerning transactions,including at least date, description and amount of the transactions, fora particular person or enterprise, and a processing functioncategorizing individual ones of the collected transactions according toat least part of the transaction description.

In one embodiment the system further comprises a compilation functionsummarizing transactions in individual categories. In another embodimentthe system further comprises a reporting function reporting thesummarized transactions to the particular person or enterprise. IN yetanother embodiment categorization is done according to categorydefinition entered by the particular person or on behalf of theenterprise. In yet another embodiment categorization is done for a firstplurality of persons or enterprises according to category definitionentered by a second plurality of persons or enterprises.

In some embodiments categories are developed from information taken fromcommunication between clients and the system, and in other embodiments aprobability algorithm may be used in developing categories. In someembodiments the identifiers for categories are periodically amendedaccording to further information collected and processed.

In still other embodiments the system collects the informationconcerning transactions from Internet-connected web sites adapted toprovide account information to clients, and also in some cases reportsto clients through the Internet network.

In yet another embodiment the system further comprises a functionstoring past transaction history associated with the particular personor enterprise, and in some cases the transaction history may be used topredict future transaction history.

In another aspect of the invention a method is provided for categorizingtransactions, comprising steps of (a) gathering information concerningtransactions by a collection function, including at least date,description and amount of the transactions, for a particular person orenterprise; and (b) categorizing individual ones of the collectedtransactions according to at least part of the transaction descriptionby a processing function.

In one embodiment of the method there is further a step comprisingsummarizing transactions in individual categories by a compilationfunction. In another embodiment there is a step for reporting thesummarized transactions to the particular person or enterprise by areporting function. In still another embodiment categorization is doneaccording to category definition entered by the particular person or onbehalf of the enterprise. In some embodiments categorization is done fora first plurality of persons or enterprises according to categorydefinition entered by a second plurality of persons or enterprises.

In some embodiments categories are developed from information taken fromcommunication between clients and the system. Also in some embodiments aprobability algorithm is used in developing categories. In some casesidentifiers for categories are periodically amended according to furtherinformation collected and processed.

In still other embodiments of the method the system collects theinformation concerning transactions from Internet-connected web sitesadapted to provide account information to clients. In some embodimentsthe system reports to clients through the Internet network. In otherembodiments method further comprises a step for storing past transactionhistory associated with the particular person or enterprise. And in someembodiments the past transaction history is used to predict futuretransaction history.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

FIG. 1 is an overview of an Internet portal system and network accordingto an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary plan view of a personalized Portal home pageapplication as it may be seen on a display monitor according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating user interaction with the Internetportal of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a summarization software agentand capabilities thereof according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 5 is a logical flow chart illustrating an exemplary summarizationprocess performed by the software agent of FIG. 4 operating in auser-defined mode.

FIG. 6 is a logical flow chart illustrating an exemplary summarizationprocess performed by the software agent of FIG. 4 in a User-independentsmart mode with minimum user input.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a uniqueInternet portal is provided and adapted to provide unique services tousers who have obtained access via an Internet or other networkconnection from an Internet-capable appliance. Such an interfaceprovides users with a method for storing many personal WEB pages andfurther provides search function and certain task-performing functions.The methods and apparatus of the present invention are taught inenabling detail below.

FIG. 1 is an overview of an Internet portal system 11 and Internetnetwork 13 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Portalsystem 11, in this embodiment, operates as an ISP in addition to aunique network portal, but may, in other embodiments be implemented as astand-alone Internet server. In yet other embodiments the service andapparatus described herein may also be provided by such as a search andlisting service (AltaVista™, Yahoo™) or by any other enterprise hostinga WEB-connected server.

Internet 13 is representative of a preferred use of the presentinvention, but should not be considered limiting, as the invention couldapply in other networks and combinations of networks.

ISP 15 in this embodiment comprises a server 31, a modem bank 33,represented here by a single modem, and a mass storage repository 29 forstoring digital data. The modem bank is a convenience, as connection tothe server could be by another type of network link. ISP 15, as istypical in the art, provides Internet access services for individualsubscribers. In addition to well-known Internet access services, ISP 15also provides a unique subscription service as an Internet portal forthe purpose of storing many WEB pages or destinations along with anypasswords and or personal codes associated with those pages, in a mannerdescribed in more detail below. This unique portal service is providedby execution of Portal Software 35, which is termed by the inventors thePassword-All suite. The software of the invention is referred to hereinboth as the Portal Software, and as the Password-all software suite.Also, in much of the description below, the apparatus of the inventionis referred to by the Password-All terminology, such as the Password-AllServer or Password-All Portal.

ISP 15 is connected to Internet 13 as shown. Other equipment known inthe art to be present and connected to a network such as Internet 13,for example, IP data routers, data switches, gateway routers, and thelike, are not illustrated here but may be assumed to be present. Accessto ISP 15 is through a connection-oriented telephone system as is knownin the art, or through any other Internet/WEB access connection, such asthrough a cable modem, special network connection (e.g. T1), ISDN, andso forth. Such connection is illustrated via access line 19 fromInternet appliance 17 through modem bank 33.

In a preferred embodiment a user has access to Internet Password-AllPortal services by a user name and password as is well known in the art,which provides an individualized WEB page to the subscriber. In anotherembodiment wherein a user has other individuals that use his or herInternet account, then an additional password or code unique to the usermay be required before access to portal 31 is granted. Such personalizedPortal WEB pages may be stored in repository 29, which may be anyconvenient form of mass storage.

Three Internet servers 23, 25, and 27, are shown in Internet 13, andrepresent Internet servers hosted by various enterprises and subscribedto by a user operating appliance 17. For example, server 23 may be abank server wherein interactive on-line banking and account managing maybe performed. Server 25 may be an investment server wherein investmentaccounts may be created and managed. Server 27 may be an airline ortravel server wherein flights may be booked, tickets may be purchased,and so on. In this example, all three servers are secure serversrequiring user ID and password for access, but the invention is notnecessarily limited to just secure services.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a subscribing useroperating an Internet-capable appliance, such as appliance 17, connectsto Password-All Portal system 11 hosted by ISP 15, and thereby gainsaccess to a personalized, interactive WEB page, which in turn providesaccess to any one of a number of servers on Internet 13 such as servers23, 25, and 27, without being required to enter additional passwords orcodes. In a preferred embodiment the software that enables this serviceis termed Password-All by the inventors. Password-All may be consideredto be a software suite executing on the unique server, and in someinstances also on the user's station (client). Additional interactivityprovided by portal software 35 allows a connected user to search hislisted pages for information associated with keywords, text strings, orthe like, and allows a user to program user-defined tasks involvingaccess and interaction with one or more Internet-connected servers suchas servers 23, 25, and 27 according to a pre-defined time schedule.These functions are taught in enabling detail below.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a personalized portal page as may be seenon a display monitor according to an embodiment of the presentinvention, provided by Password-All Portal software 35 executing onserver 31, in response to secure access by a subscriber. Page 32presents an interactive listing 34 of user-subscribed or member WEBpages, identified in this example by URL, but which may also beidentified by any convenient pseudonym, preferably descriptive, alongwith user name and typically encrypted password information for eachpage. Listed in a first column under destination, are exemplarydestinations LBC.com, My Bank.com, My Stocks.com, My shopping.com,Mortgage.com, and Airline.com. These are but a few of many exemplarydestinations that may be present and listed as such on page 33. In orderto view additional listings listed but not immediately viewable fromwithin application 33, a scroll bar 35 is provided and adapted to allowa user to scroll up or down the list to enable viewing as is known inthe art.

Items listed in list 34 in this example may be considered destinationson such as servers 23, 25, and 27 of FIG. 1. Typically the URLassociated with an item on this list will not take a user to a server,per se, but to a page stored on a server. User names and password dataassociated with each item in list 34 are illustrated in respectivecolumns labeled user name, and password, to the right of the columnlabeled destination. Each listing, or at least a portion of eachlisting, is a hyperlink invoking, when selected, the URL to thatdestination. In some instances a particular service may have more thanone associated URL. For example, My Bank.com may have more than one URLassociated for such as different accounts or businesses associated alsowith a single subscriber. In this case there may be a sub-listing fordifferent destinations associated with a single higher-level listing.This expedient is not shown, but given this teaching the mechanism willbe apparent to those with skill in the art.

In some embodiments one page 33 may be shared by more than one user,such as a husband and wife sharing a common account and subscription. Aninstance of this is illustrated herein with respect to the serverlabeled Mortgage.com wherein both a John and a Jane Doe are listedtogether under the column labeled user name. In another embodiment, anetwork of individuals, perhaps business owners, authorized co-workers,investment parties, or the like may share one application. In this way,system 11 may be adapted for private individuals as well as businessuses.

After gaining access to application 33 which is served via Internetportal server 31 of FIG. 1, a user may scroll, highlight, and select anyURL in his or her list 34 for the purpose of navigation to thatparticular destination for further interaction. Application 33 alreadyhas each password and user name listed for each URL. It is notnecessary, however, that the password and user name be displayed for auser or users. These may well be stored transparently in a user'sprofile, and invoked as needed as a user makes selections. Therefore, auser is spared the need of entering passwords and user names for anydestinations enabled by list 34. Of course, each list 34 is built,configured and maintained by a subscribing user or users, and an editingfacility is also provided wherein a user may edit and update listings,including changing URL's adding and deleting listings, and the like.

In another aspect of the invention new listings for a user's profile,such as a new passthrough to a bank or other enterprise page, may beadded semi-automatically as follows: Typically, when a user opens a newaccount with an enterprise through interaction with a WEB page hosted bythe enterprise, the user is required to provide certain information,which will typically include such as the user's ID, address, e-mailaccount, and so forth, and typically a new user name and password toaccess the account. In this process the user will be interacting withthe enterprises page from his/her browser. A Password-All plug-in isprovided wherein, after entering the required information for the newenterprise, the user may activate a pre-determined signal (right click,key stroke, etc.), and the Password-All suite will then enter a newpassthrough in the user's Password. All profile at the Password-AllPortal server.

In a related method for new entries, the enterprise hosting thePassword-All Portal may, by agreement with other enterprises, providelog-in and sign-up services at the Password-All Portal, with most actiontransparent to the user. For example, there may be, at the Password-AllPortal, a selectable browser list of cooperating enterprises, such asbanks, security services, and the like, and a user having a Password-AllPortal subscription and profile may select among such cooperatingenterprises and open new accounts, which will simultaneously andautomatically be added to the Password-All Portal page for the user andto the server hosted by the cooperating enterprise. There may be someinteractivity required for different accounts, but in the main, muchinformation from the user's profile may be used directly without beingre-entered.

The inventors have anticipated that many potential users may well besuspicious of providing passwords and user names to an enterprisehosting a Password-All Portal Server executing a service likePassword-All according to embodiments of the present invention. Toaccommodate this problem, in preferred embodiments, it is not necessarythat the user provide the cleartext password to Password-All. Instead,an encrypted version of each password is provided. When a user links tohis passthrough page in Password-All at the Password-All Portal server,when he/she invokes a hyperlink, the encrypted password is returned tothe user's system, which then, by virtue of the kept encryption key ormaster password, invokes the true and necessary password for connectionto the selected destination. It is thus not necessary that cleartextpasswords be stored at the Password-All Portal server, where they may bevulnerable to attack from outside sources, or to perceived misuse inother ways as well.

In a related safety measure, in a preferred embodiment of the invention,a user's complete profile is never stored on a single server, but isdistributed over two or more, preferably more, servers, so any problemwith any one server will minimize the overall effect for any particularuser.

Password-All, as described above, allows a user to access a completelist of the user's usual cyberspace destinations, complete withnecessary log-on data, stored in an encrypted fashion, so a user maysimply select a destination (a hyperlink) in the Password-All list, andthe user's browser then invokes the URL for the selected destination. Inan added feature, Password-All may display banner ads and other types ofadvertisement during the navigation time between a hyperlink beinginvoked and the time the destination WEB page is displayed.

In yet another embodiment of the invention, a user/subscriber need notaccess the Password-All page to enjoy the advantages of the uniquefeatures provided. In this variation, a Plug-In is provided for thesubscriber's WEB browser. If the subscriber navigates by use of thelocal browser to a WEB page requiring a secure log-in, such as his/heron-line banking destination, when the subscriber is presented with aninput window for ID and Password, the plug in may be activated by apredetermined user input, such as a hot key or right click of the mousedevice. The plug-in then accesses, to transparently, the Password-Allpage (which may be cached at the client), and automatically accesses andprovides the needed data for log-on.

In yet another aspect of the invention a search option 37 allows a userto search list 34 for specific URL's based on typed input such askeywords or the like. In some cases, the number of URL's stored in list34 can be extensive making a search function such as function 37 anattractive option. A criteria dialog box 51 illustrated as logicallyseparated from and below list 34 is provided and adapted to accept inputfor search option 37 as is known in the art. In one embodiment, searchoption 37 may bring up a second window wherein a dialog box such as box51 could be located.

In another aspect of the invention the search function may also beconfigured in a window invoked from window 33 and caused to search allor selected ones of listed destinations, and to return results in amanner that may be, at least to some extent, configured by a user. Forexample a dialog box may be presented wherein a user may enter a searchcriteria and select among all of the listed destinations. The searchwill then be access each of the selected destinations in turn, and theresult may be presented to the user as each instance of the criteria isfound, or results may be listed in a manner to be accessed after thesearch.

Preferably the search function is a part of the Password-All Portalsoftware, available for all users, and may be accessed by hyperlinks inuser's personal pages. In some embodiments users may create highlyindividualized search functions that may be stored in a manner to beusable only by the user who creates such a function.

In many aspects of the present invention, knowledge of specific WEBpages, and certain types of WEB pages, is highly desirable. In manyembodiments characteristics of destination WEB pages are researched bypersons (facilitators) maintaining and enhancing Password-All Portalsoftware 35, and many characteristics may be provided in configurationmodules for users to accomplish specific tasks. In most cases thesecharacteristics are invoked and incorporated transparent to the user.

In yet another aspect of the present invention, the Password-All suiteis structured to provide periodic reports to a user, in a manner to bestructured and timed by the user, through the user's profile. Forexample, reports of changes in account balances in bank accounts, stockpurchases, stock values, total airline travel purchases, frequent-fliermiles, and the like may be summarized and provided to the users in manydifferent ways. Because the Password-All Portal server with thePassword-All software site handles a broad variety of transactionaltraffic for a user, there is an opportunity to summarize and collect andprocess statistics in many useful ways. In preferred embodiments of theinvention such reports may be furnished and implemented in a number ofdifferent ways, including being displayed on the user's secure personalWEB page on the Password-All Portal.

In addition to the ability of performing tasks as described above, taskresults, including reports and hard documents such as airline ticketsmay be sent over the Internet or other data packet-networks touser-defined destinations such as fax machines, connected computernodes, e-mail servers, and other Internet-connected appliances. Alltasks may be set-up and caused to run according to user-definedschedules while the user is doing something else or is otherwise notengaged with the scheduled task.

In another embodiment of the present invention, recognizing theincreasing use of the Internet for fiscal transactions, such aspurchasing goods and services, a facility is provided in a user'sprofile to automatically track transactions made at variousdestinations, and to authorize payment either on atransaction-by-transaction basis, or after a session, using access tothe user's bank accounts, all of which may be pre-programmed andauthorized by the user.

Other functions or options illustrated as part of application 35 includea last URL option 41, an update function 43, and an add function 45.Function 41 allows a user to immediately navigate to a last visited URL.Update function 43 provides a means of updating URL's for content andnew address. An add function enables a user to add additional URL's tolist 34. Similarly, function 45 may also provide a means to deleteentries. Other ways to add accounts are described above. It should benoted that the services provided by the unique Password-All Portal inembodiments of the present invention, and by the Password-All softwaresuite are not limited to destinations requiring passwords and usernames. The Password-All Portal and software in many embodiments may alsobe used to manage all of a user's bookmarks, including editing ofbookmarks and the like. In this aspect, bookmarks will typically bepresented in indexed, grouped, and hierarchical ways.

There are editing features provided with Password-All for adding,acquiring, deleting, and otherwise managing bookmarks. As a convenience,in many embodiments of the invention, bookmarks may be downloaded from auser's Password-All site, and loaded onto the same user's local browser.In this manner, additions and improvements in the bookmark set for auser may be used without the necessity of going to Password-All.Further, bookmarks may be uploaded from a user's local PC to his/herhome page on the Password-All site by use of one or more Password-Allplug-ins.

It will be apparent to the skilled artisan, given the teaching herein,that the functionality provided in various embodiments of the inventionis especially applicable to Internet-capable appliances that may belimited in input capability. For example, a set-top box in a WEB TVapplication may well be without a keyboard for entering IDs andPasswords and the like. In practice of the present invention keyboardentry is minimized or eliminated. The same comments apply to many othersorts of Internet appliances.

In preferred embodiments of the invention, once a subscriber-user is inPassword-All, only an ability to point-and-click is needed for allnavigation. To get into the Password-All site, using a limitedapparatus, such as an appliance without a keyboard or keypad, aSmartcard or embedded password may be used, or some other type ofauthentication.

It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that an interactiveapplication such as application 33 may be provided in a form other thana WEB page without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentinvention. For example, an application such as application 33 may beprovided as a downloadable module or program that may be set-up andconfigured off-line and made operational when on-line.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating user interaction with the InternetPassword-All Portal of FIG. 1. The following process steps illustrated,according to an embodiment of the present invention, are intended toillustrate exemplary user-steps and automated software processes thatmay be initiated and invoked during interaction with an Internet portalof the present invention such as portal 31 of FIG. 1. In step 53 a userconnects to the Internet or another previously described switched-packetnetwork via a compatible appliance such as Internet appliance 17 of FIG.1.

At step 55, a user enters a user-name and password, which, in oneembodiment, may simply be his ISP user name and password. In anotherembodiment, a second password or code would be required to access anInternet portal such as portal server 31 of FIG. 1 after logging ontothe Internet through the ISP. In some cases, having a specialarrangement with the ISP, there may be one password for both Internetaccess through the ISP and for Password-All. At step 57 a personal WEBpage such as page 32 of FIG. 2 is displayed via Internet portal server31. At minimum, the personalized WEB page will contain all userconfigured URL's, and may also be enhanced by a search function, amongother possibilities.

In step 58 a user will, minimally, select a URL from his or herbookmarked destinations, and as is known by hyperlink technology, thetransparent URL will be invoked, and the user will navigate to thatdestination for the purpose of normal user interaction. In this action,the Password-All Portal software transparently logs the user on to thedestination page, if such log-on is needed.

At step 60 the user invokes a search engine by clicking on an optionsuch as described option 37 of FIG. 2. At step 62, the user inputssearch parameters into a provided text field such as text field 51 ofFIG. 2. After inputting such parameters, the user starts the search by abutton such as button 52. The search engine extracts information in step64. Such information may be, in one option, of the form of URL's fittingthe description provided by search parameters. A searched list of URL'smay be presented in a separate generated page in step 66 after which auser may select which URL to navigate to. In an optional searchfunction, the user may provide search criteria, and search any or all ofthe possible destinations for the criteria.

In another embodiment wherein WEB pages are cached in their presentableform, information extracted in step 64 may include any informationcontained in any of the stored pages such as text, pictures, interactivecontent, or the like. In this case, one displayed result page mayprovide generated links to search results that include the URLassociated with the results. Perhaps by clicking on a text or graphicresult, the associated WEB page will be displayed for the user with theresult highlighted and in view with regards to the display window.

Enhanced Agent for WEB Summaries

In another aspect of the present invention, a software agent, termed agatherer by the inventors, is adapted to gather and return summaryinformation about URL's according to user request or enterprisediscretion. This is accomplished in embodiments of the present inventionby a unique scripting and language parsing method provided by theinventor wherein human knowledge workers associated with the serviceprovide written scripts to such a gatherer according to subscriber orenterprise directives. Such a software gatherer, and capabilitiesthereof, is described in enabling detail below.

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is illustrated an exemplary architecturerepresenting a portal service-network which, in this case is hosted byISP 15. Portal software 35 in this embodiment executes on portal server31 set-up at the ISP location. Mass repository 29 is used for storingsubscriber information such as passwords, login names, and the like.Internet servers 23, 25, and 27 represent servers that are adapted toserve WEB pages of enterprises patronized by a subscriber to the portalservice such as one operating Internet appliance 17.

The main purpose of portal software 35, as described above withreference to FIG. 2, is to provide an interactive application that listsall of the subscriber's WEB sites in the form of hyperlinks. When a userinvokes a hyperlink from his personal list, software 35 uses thesubscriber's personal information to provide an automatic andtransparent login function for the subscriber while jumping thesubscriber to the subject destination.

Referring again to FIG. 2, an interactive list 34 containinguser-entered hyperlinks and a set of interactive tools is displayed to asubscriber by portal software 35 of FIG. 1. One of the tools availableto a subscriber interacting with list 34 is agent (software) 39. Agent39 may be programmed to perform certain tasks such as obtaining accountinformation, executing simple transactions, returning user-requestednotification information about upcoming events, and so on. Searchfunction 37 and update function 43 may be integrated with agent 39 asrequired to aid in functionality.

It is described in the above disclosure that agent 39 may, in someembodiments, search for and return certain summary information containedon user-subscribed WEB pages, such as account summaries, order trackinginformation and certain other information according to user-definedparameters. This feature may be programmed by a user to work on aperiodic time schedule, or on demand.

In the following disclosure, enhancements are provided to agent 39. Suchenhancements, described in detail below, may be integrated into agent 39of portal software 35 (FIGS. 1 and 2); and may be provided as a separateagent or gatherer to run with portal software 35; or may, in someembodiments, be provided as a standalone service that is separate fromportal software 35.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a summarization software agent 67and various capabilities and layers thereof according to an embodimentof the present invention. Summarization agent 67, hereinafter termedgatherer 67, is a programmable and interactive software applicationadapted to run on a network server. Gatherer 67 may, in one embodiment,be integrated with portal software 35 of FIG. 1 and be provided in theform of a software module separate from agent 39 (FIG. 2). In anotherembodiment, gatherer 67 may be a part of agent 39 as an enhancement tothe function of that agent as previously described. In still anotherembodiment, gatherer 67 may be provided as a parent or client-sideapplication controlled by a separate service from the portal servicedescribed above.

In this exemplary embodiment gatherer 67 is a multi-featured softwareapplication having a variety of sub-modules and interface modulesincorporated therein to provide enhanced function. Gatherer 67 has aclient/service interface layer 69 adapted to enable directive input fromboth a client (user) and a knowledge worker or workers associated withthe service. A browser interface 77 is provided in layer 69, and adaptedto provide access to application 67 from a browser running on a client'sPC or other Internet or network appliance. Interface 77 facilitatesbi-directional communication with a user's browser application (notshown) for the purpose of allowing the user to input summary requestsinto gatherer 67 and receive summary results. Interface 77 supports allexisting network communication protocols such as may be known in theart, and may be adapted to support future protocols.

Layer 69 also comprises a unique input scripting module 79 that isadapted to allow a human knowledge worker to create and supply directivescripts containing the site logic needed by gatherer 67 to find andretrieve data from a WEB site. In this case, gatherer 67 executes andruns on a network server such as server 31 of FIG. 1. However, this isnot required in order to practice the present invention.

It is assumed in this example that gatherer 67 is part of the portalsoftware suite 35 running on server 31 of FIG. 1. Gatherer 67 may beprovided as several dedicated agents or as one multi-functional agentwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.For example, one gatherer 67 may be scripted and programmed to execute asingle user request with additional gatherers 67 called upon to performadditional user-requests. Alternatively, one gatherer 67 may bededicated and assigned to each individual user and adapted to handle allrequests from that user.

Interface layer 69 facilitates exchange of information from both aclient and a knowledge worker. A client operating a WEB browser with anappropriate plug-in is enabled to communicate and interact with gatherer67. For example, a user may enter a request to return a summary ofpricing for all apartments renting for under $1000.00 per month locatedin a given area (defined by the user) from apartments.com (one of user'sregistered WEB sites). The just mentioned request would be categorizedas either a periodic request, or a one time (on demand) request. Thecommunicated request initiates a service action wherein a knowledgeworker associated with the service uses module 79 to set-up gatherer 67to perform its function. Module 79 is typically executed from anetwork-connected PC operated by the knowledge worker.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a unique scriptingmethod facilitated by module 79 is provided to enable gatherer 67 toobtain the goal information requested by a user. For example, the abovementioned example of WEB-site apartments.com has a specific HTML(hyper-text-markup-language) logic that it uses to create its site andpost its information. Such site logic is relatively standard fare for amajority of different sites hosted by different entities. Using thisknowledge, a knowledge worker creates a site-specific script or templatefor gatherer 67 to follow. Such a template contains descriptions andlocations of the appropriate fields used, for example, atapartments.com. Apartment description, location, deposit information,rental information, agent contact information, and other related fieldsare matched in terms of location and label description on the templatecreated with module 79. Completed templates are stored in a databasecontained in a storage facility such as, perhaps, repository 29 ofFIG. 1. Such templates may be reused and may be updated (edited) withnew data.

In one embodiment, one script may contain site logics for a plurality ofWEB pages, and instructions for specific navigational instruction andpassword or login information may be contained therein and executedserially, such as one site at a time. It is important to note that theknowledge worker or workers may perform much of their scripting viaautomatic controls such as by object linking and embedding (OLE) and aminor portion of scripting may be performed manually in an appropriatecomputer language, many of which are known in the art).

Gatherer 67 also has a process layer 71 adapted for internal informationgathering and parameter configuration. An optional portal serverinterface 81 is provided and adapted to allow gather 67 to provideupdated information to a user's list of hyperlinks and also to obtaindata from portal server 31 if required. For example, required hyperlinksmay be mirrored from a user's home page to a scripting template fornavigational purposes. In an embodiment wherein gatherer 67 is part of astandalone service, a convention for providing user login informationmay be supplied at the client's end when a request is made. For example,an encrypted password may be supplied by a client plug-in and gatherer67 may temporarily borrow the user's encryption key when auto login isperformed.

An appliance configuration module 83 is provided and adapted to allow auser to define and configure an Internet appliance to communicate withthe service and receive summary information. Such appliances may includebut are not limited to palm top PC's, lap top PC's, cellular telephones,WEB TV's, and so on. Typically, a user will be presented a configurationWEB page from a network server that displays in his browser window onhis desktop PC. The page contains an interface for communicating deviceparameters and communication protocol types to module 83. In this way, auser may configure a preferred device for receipt of summaryinformation. Device parameters and communication protocols inherent tosuch a device are incorporated into the scripting of the site templateand are used as instructions for WEB summary delivery.

A navigation layer 73 is provided and adapted to perform the function ofexternal site navigation and data gathering for gatherer 67. To thisend, a communication interface/browser control module 85 is provided andadapted to function as a WEB browser to access WEB sites containing WEBdata. Control 85 receives its instruction from the scripted templatecreated by the knowledge worker.

A parsing engine 87 is provided and adapted to parse individual WEBsites according to a template created via scripting module 79. Parsingengine 87 may be a Pearl engine, an IE HTML engine, or any other orcombination of known parsing engines. The template (not shown) tellscontrol 85 and parsing engine 87 where to go and what fields at thedestination site to look for to access desired data. Once the datafields are located, parsing engine 87 gathers current data in theappropriate field, and returns that data to the service for furtherprocessing such as data conversion, compression and storage, and thelike.

Because WEB sites use tools that use consistent logic in setting uptheir sites, this logic may be used by the summarization service toinstruct control 83 and parsing engine 87. The inventor provides hereinan exemplary script logic for navigating to and garnishing data fromAmazon™.com. The hyperlinks and/or actual URLs required for navigationare not shown, but may be assumed to be included in the template script.In this example, a company name Yodlee (known to the inventors) is usedin the script for naming object holders and object containers, which arein this case Active X™ conventions. In another embodiment, Java™ scriptor another object linking control may be used. The scripted templatelogic example is as follows:

# Site amazon.orders.x - shows status of orders from Amazon login( 7 );get( “/exec/obidos/order-list/” ); my @tables =get_tables_containing_text( “Orders:” ); my $order_list = newYodlee::ObjectHolder( ‘orders’ ); $order_list->source( ‘amazon’ );$order_list->link_info( get_link_info( ) ); my @href_list; my@container_list; foreach my $table ( @tables ) {   my @rows =get_table_rows( ); foreach my $i ( 0 .. $#rows ) {   select_row( $i );  my $text = get_text( $rows[ $i ] );   next if $text =~/Orders:|Status/;   my @items = get_row_items( );   next unless@items >= 4;   my( $order_num, $date, $status );   select_cell( 1 );  $order_num = get_cell_text( );   my $href = get_url_of_first_href(get_cell( ) );   select_cell( 2 );   $date = get_cell_text( );  select_cell( 3 );   $status = get_cell_text( );   next unless defined$order_num and defined $date and defined   $status;   my $order = newYodlee::Container( ‘orders’ );   $order->order_number( $order_num );  $order->date( $date );   $order->status( $status );  $order_list->push_object( $order );   if( defined $href ) {    push(@href_list, $href );    push( @container_list, $order ); foreach my $i (0 .. $#href_list ) {   get( $href_list[ $i ] );   @tables =get_tables_containing_text( “Items Ordered:” ); foreach my $table (@tables ) {   my @rows = get_table_rows( ); foreach my $j ( 0 .. $#rows) {   select_row( $j );   my $href = get_url_of_first_href( get_row( ));   next unless defined $href;   my @child_list = get_children(get_row( ), ‘a’ );   next unless defined $child_list[ 0 ];   my $text =get_text( $child_list[ 0 ] );   $container_list[ $i ]->description($text );   }  } } result( $order_list );

The above example is a script that instructs control 85 and parser 87 tonavigate to and obtain data from Amazon™.com, specifically that datathat reflects the user's current order status. Scripts may also bewritten to obtain virtually any type of text information available fromany site. For example, a user may wish to obtain the New York Timesheadlines, the top ten performing stocks, a comparative list of flightsfrom San Francisco to New York, etc. In one embodiment, metadata may beassociated with and used in-place of the actual scripted language forthe purpose of reducing complication in the case of many scripts on onetemplate.

A data processing layer 75 is provided and adapted to store, process,and present returned data to users according to enterprise rules andclient direction. A database interface module 89 is provided and adaptedto provide access for gatherer 67 to a mass repository such asrepository 29 of FIG. 1, for the purpose of storing and retrievingsummary data, templates, presentation directives, and so on. Gathereragent 67 may also access data through interface 89 such as profileinformation, user account and URL information, stored site logics and soon. Data scanned from the WEB is stored in a canonical format in adatabase such as repository 29, or in another connected storagefacility. All stored data is, of course, associated with an individualwho requested it, or for whom the data is made available according toenterprise discretion.

A summarization page module 91 is provided and adapted to organize andserve a WEB summary page to a user. Module 91, in some embodiments, mayimmediately push a WEB summary to a user, or module 91 may store suchsummarized pages for a user to access via a pull method, in which case anotification may be sent to the user alerting him of the summary pageavailability. Summarization module 91 includes an HTML renderer that isable to format data into HTML format for WEB page display. In this way,e-mail messages and the like may be presented as HTML text on a user'ssummarization page. Moreover, any summary data from any site may includean embedded hyperlink to that site. In this way, a user looking at ane-mail text in HTML may click on it and launch the appropriate e-mailprogram. Other sites will, by default, be linked through the summarypage.

Many users will access their summary data through a WEB page asdescribed above, however, this is not required in order to practice thepresent invention. In some embodiments, users will want their summaryinformation formatted and delivered to one of a variety ofInternet-capable appliances such as a palm top or, perhaps a cell phone.To this end, the renderer is capable of formatting and presenting thesummary data into a number of formats specific to alternative devices.Examples of different known formats include, but are not limited to XML,plain text, VoxML, HDML, audio, video, and so on.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, gather 67 isflexible in such a way as it may act according to enterprise rules,client directives, or a combination of the two. For example, if a usermakes a request for summary data about a user/subscribed WEB page to beperiodically executed and presented in the form of a HTML document, thengather 67 would automatically access and analyze the required internalinformation and user provided information to formulate a directive.Using scripting module 79, a knowledge worker provides a template (ifone is not already created for that site) that contains the “where togo” and “what to get” information according to site logic, user input,and known information.

Alternatively, if a user requests a summary about data on one of hissites such as, perhaps, current interest rates and re-finance costs athis mortgage site, the service may at its own discretion provide anadditional unsolicited summary from an alternate mortgage site forcomparison. This type of summarization would be designed to enhance auser's position based on his profile information. In this case, updateddata about latest interest rates, stock performances, car prices,airline ticket discounts, and so on would be stored by the service forcomparative purposes. If a user request for a summary can be equaled orbettered in terms of any advantage to the user, such summary data may beincluded.

In many cases, created templates may be re-used unless a WEB sitechanges its site logic parameters, in which case, the new logic must beaccessed and any existing templates must be updated, or a new templatemay be created for the site. The templates contain site-specific scriptobtained from the site and stored by the knowledge workers. In oneembodiment, companies hosting WEB pages automatically provide their sitelogics and any logic updates to the service by virtue of an agreementbetween the service and the WEB hosts.

In an alternative embodiment gatherer 67 may be implemented as a clientapplication installed on a user's PC. In this embodiment, a user wouldnot be required to supply log-in or password codes. Summarizationscripts may be sent to the client software and templates may beautomatically created with the appropriate scripts using log-in andpassword information encrypted and stored locally on the user's machine.

In addition to providing WEB summary information, gatherer 67 may alsobe used to provide such as automatic registration to new sites, and forupdating old registration information to existing sites. For example, ifa user whishes to subscribe, or register at a new site, only theidentification of the site is required from the user as long as hispertinate information has not changed. If a new password or the like isrequired, gatherer 67 through control module 73 may present login orpassword codes from a list of alternative codes provided by a user. Inanother embodiment, a database (not shown) containing a wealth ofpassword options may be accessed by gatherer 67 for the purpose oftrying different passwords until one is accepted by the site. Once apassword or log-in code is accepted, it may be sent to a user and storedin his password list and at the network level.

It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that a softwareapplication such as gatherer 67 may be implemented in many separatelocations connected in a data network. For example, a plurality ofgatherer applications may be distributed over many separate serverslinked to one or more mass repositories. Client applications include butare not limited to a WEB-browser plug-in for communicating to theservice. Plug-in extensions may also be afforded to proxy servers sothat auto-login and data access may still be performed transparent to auser.

In another embodiment, plug-ins enabling communication with gatherer 67may be provided and configured to run on other network devices for thepurpose of enabling such a device to initiate a request and get aresponse without the need for a desktop computer.

In most embodiments a user operating a desktop PC will order a one timeor periodic summary related to some or all of his subscribed WEB sites.A logical flow of an exemplary request/response interaction is providedbelow.

FIG. 5 is a logical flow chart illustrating an exemplary summarizationprocess performed by the software agent of FIG. 4 operating in auser-defined mode. In step 93, a user has initiated a new request for asummary (summary order). It is assumed for the purpose of discussion,that the request of step 93 involves a site wherein no template has beencreated. In step 95, the request is received and analyzed. A knowledgeworker will likely perform this step. The new request may be posted tothe user's portal home page, sent directly to gatherer 67, or evencommunicated through e-mail or other media to the service.

In step 97 a knowledge worker accesses particular site logic associatedwith the request URLs. For example, if the request involves a pluralityof URLs, then all site logics for those URLs are accessed. Logic may beavailable in a repository such as repository 29 of FIG. 1 if they wereobtained at the time of user registration to a particular URL, or sentin by WEB-site hosts shortly after registration. If it is a completelynew URL, then the logic must be obtained from the site. In most caseshowever, the logic will be known by virtue of a plurality of usersaccessing common URLs. Therefore cross-linking in a database oflogic/user associations may be performed to access a logic for a sitethat is new to one particular user, but not new to another.

In step 99, the knowledge worker creates a template by virtue ofscripting module 79 (FIG. 4) containing all site logic, URLs, log-in andpassword information, and the user request information. As describedpreviously, templates may be re-used for a same request. In most cases,scripting may be mostly automated with minimum manual input performed bythe knowledge worker. In many cases, an existing template will match anew request exactly, and may be re-used. In that case steps 97, 99, and101 would not be required.

In step 101 the template is stored and associated with the requestinguser. The stored template may now be retrieved at a scheduled time forperforming the summary gathering. At step 103, a browser control such asmodule 85 of FIG. 4 is activated to access the stored template andnavigate to specified URLs for the purpose of gathering summary data. Ifa timing function is attributed to the template stored in step 101, thenthe template may self execute and call up the browser function. Inanother embodiment, the knowledge worker may notify the browser controlto get the template for its next task. In some embodiments, a pluralityof controls may be used with one template as previously described.

In step 105, automatic log-in is performed, if required, to gain accessto each specified URL. In step 107, a specified WEB-page is navigated toand parsed for requested data according to the logic on the template. Ifthere are a plurality of WEB pages to parse then this step is repeatedfor the number of pages. A variety of parsing engines may be used forthis process such as an IE™ parser, or a Pearl™ parser. Only therequested data is kept in step 107.

A request may be an on-demand request requiring immediate return, or ascheduled request wherein data may be posted. At step 109, such logic isconfirmed. If the data is to be presented according to a periodicschedule, then summary data parsed in step 107 is stored for latter usein step 111. In step 113, the summary data is rendered as HTML if notalready formatted, and displayed in the form of a summary WEB-page instep 115. The summary page may be posted for access by a user at a timeconvenient to the user (pull), or may be pushed as a WEB-page to theuser and be made to automatically display on the user's PC. Notificationof summary page availability may also be sent to a user to alert him ofcompletion of order.

If the summary data is from a one-time on-demand request and requiredimmediately by a user, then a network appliance and data delivery method(configured by the user) is confirmed, and the data is rendered in theappropriate format for delivery and display in step 117. In step 119,the summary data is delivered according to protocol to a user'sdesignated appliance. In step 121 a user receives requested informationin the appropriate format.

It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that there may be moreor fewer logical steps as well as added sub-steps than are illustratedin this example. For example, step 105 may in other embodiments includesub-steps such as getting an encryption key from a user. In stillanother embodiment, part of a request may be rendered as HTML as in step113 while certain other portions of the same request data might berendered in another format and delivered via alternative methods. Thereare many possibilities.

The method and apparatus of the present invention may be used to presentsummaries to users without user input. Process logic such as this isdetailed below.

FIG. 6 is a logical flow chart illustrating an exemplary summarizationprocess performed by the software agent of FIG. 4 in a User-independentsmart mode with minimum or no user input. In step 117 anenterprise-initiated summary process begins. In this case, theenterprise may be assisting a user in finding a better deal or, perhapspresenting the individual with summaries from and links to alternativepages not yet subscribed to by a user.

In step 119, a database containing user information and parameters isaccessed and reviewed. Certain information specific to a user may berequired to initiate an enterprise-sponsored summary report. At step121, the knowledge worker accesses the site logic specific to thespecified target site or sites for summarization. In step 123, theknowledge worker modifies an existing user template, or creates a newone if necessary. At step 125 the template is stored in a repositorysuch as repository 29 and associated with the user.

As described in FIG. 5, the template either self-executes according to atimed function and invokes a browser control such as control 85 (FIG.4), or is accessed by control 85 as a result of task notification. Instep 127, the browser control begins navigation. Auto logins areperformed, if required, in step 129 to gain access to selected sites. Ifthe WEB pages are new to a user, and the user has no registration withthe WEB site, then through agreement, or other convention, the servicemay be provided access to such sites. Such an agreement may be made, forexample, if the host of the WEB site realizes a possibility of gaining anew customer if the customer likes the summary information presented. Inmany other situations, no password or login information is required toobtain general information that is not personal to a client.

In step 131, all sites are parsed for summary data and stored incanonical fashion in step 133. At step 135, the data is compiled andrendered as HTML for presentation on a summary page. In step 137 a WEBsummary containing all of the data is made available to a user and theuser is notified of its existence.

Providing certain information not requested by a user may aid inenhancing a user's organization of his or her current business on theWEB. Moreover, unsolicited WEB summaries may provide betteropportunities than the current options in the user's profile. Of course,assisting a user in this manner will require that the enterprise(service) have access to the user's profile and existing account andservice information with various WEB sites on the user's list. A usermay forbid use of a user's personal information, in which case, noenterprise-initiated summaries would be performed unless they areconducted strictly in an offer mode instead of a comparative mode.

Categorization of Collected and Summarized Information

A novel system and a process are described above in several embodimentsfor navigating to network sites specific to individual users, collectinginformation from such sites, and summarizing, normalizing and presentingthe collected information to the specific user. In many situations thereis further processing that might be done to add considerable value forthe user. For example, a client might like to know, over a specifiedperiod of time, exactly how much he or she has spent, using a chargecard of some sort, for gasoline. Following the examples given above, asystem according to an embodiment of the invention might collect aclient's expenditures from a certain bank checking account via an ATMcard registered to the account, over specified time periods. The system,as described above, might also monitor the account balance, and so on.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the system might identify, ata client's desire, all expenditures over a time period for gasoline, foroil, for all transportation-related activities, and so forth. As anotherexample, food expenditures, entertainment expenditures, and just aboutany other imaginable category might be tracked and summarized for aclient. There are truly many possibilities for nature of categorizationin such a system.

In the descriptions above and in the priority document Ser. No.09/323,598 filed on Jun. 1, 1999, referenced above, rich and detaileddescription is provided related to data collection and summarization forclients. Automatic log-in at various web-bases sites may be done onbehalf clients, and data scraping may be done on a periodic basisautomatically, and at a user's specific direction. Data collected may benormalized and summarized in a number of ways.

In the system descriptions provided, services may be accomplished for alarge number of clients, and data may be collected from a broad varietyof sources, not necessarily all Internet-connected. One source, however,is certainly credit card accounts, and bank accounts through AutomaticTeller Machine (ATM) card records. In these cases transactions arelisted along with a notation as to the person or enterprise to whom apayment was made.

FIG. 7 illustrates transaction records taken from an actual on-linebanking display. This display is exemplary of such displays, but notmeant to be limiting, as there may be many variations in such displaysamong different financial institutions and for different individuals. Inthis example the date of a transaction, which in many cases may beauthorized by a card such as an ATM card, is listed in column 701 headedTxn Date. Nine different transaction records are displayed. Thedescription for each transaction is listed under column 702 headedDescription. Lastly the transaction amount is listed in column 703headed Withdrawal.

The first and last of the transaction listed in this example aredescribed in column 702 as “PUR AT SAFEWAY STORE 1204 SAL SALINAS CA”.This is notation for a particular Safeway Super Market. The cleardescription may be easily recognized as a grocery purchase, and asoftware routine may be used to parse such headings looking for certainwords, such as “SAFEWAY” or “STORE”, or the two-word combination“SAFEWAY STORE”.

In a relatively simple embodiment of a categorization service a systemmight rely on specific instructions from a client (subscriber) tocollect and summarize very specific items. The client may, for example,wish to track her expenditures at Costco, summarized on a weekly basis,as an aid for example, in her budgeting goals. In this example theclient may edit her personal profile with specific instructions toperiodically collect, summarize and present weekly the expenditures forCostco according to one or more accounts. The client could for example,include in this profile and instruction a checking account having anassociated ATM card, and a credit card not associated with a specificbank. The client also is not necessarily limited to items in the bankaccount transacted through the ATM card, but issued and cleared checkson the account to Costco might be included as well. In this simpleembodiment the system of the invention would scrape information from theprofiled accounts, looking in the description column 702 (FIG. 7) forall description including the string “Costco”, and perhaps normalize andsummarize the information, and present to the client as requested.

In a somewhat more robust embodiment a client may want to categorizetransactions for “eating out”, for example. These transactions will notall be for one enterprise, but may cover a variety of restaurants. Theclient might profile a list of his usual haunts, but that might not beadequate for an efficient accomplishment of such a service, because theclient may well visit new establishments that are not on the profiledlist. In this case, and especially because the hosting enterprise mayhave a large number of clients to whom the system provides this service,other abilities are needed to make appropriate determinations.

The inventors in this case term the unique abilities provided inembodiments of the present invention Network Categorization. Beyond thesimple ease of a client providing the exact listing in “description”from account information that can be searched, the client may wantsummarization for “travel-related” expenditures. The host, in anembodiment, may compile, by a variety of methods, a robust set ofidentifiers to find travel-related expenditures for clients, and theidentifiers need not be specific to any one client or small set ofclients. For example, the host system, which relies on a software suiteto accomplish the regular scraping of information and the normalization,summarization and presentation of the information to clients, mightdevelop a set of identifiers including terms and phrases like, “gas”,“Chevron”, “station” “oil”, “lube service” and many more for thispurpose. If it is understood that the intent is broadly fortravel-related expenditures, the system might include terms that cantest and trap expenditures for airline tickets, meals far from homerelated to travel, and other such travel-related information.

One source of identifiers for such a system is information entered byspecific clients. If, for whatever reason, a client of the serviceenters “Valero 101” as a description (or partial in the descriptioncolumn), as an expenditure for gasoline, then the hosts system may addthat term to one or several scraping code subsystems for identifying gaspurchase. If “Valero 101” is a gas station for one client, it is likelya gas station for all clients. Further the host system may parse the“Valero 101” into two identifiers: “Valero” and “101”

A key ingredient in such a system is an ability to grow and improve thenetwork categorization system. For example, if one client enters adescriptor as a particular category of transaction, then the system maybe adapted to treat all such descriptors in that category, until errors,reported either by clients or found by knowledge workers, causere-consideration and amendment (increased intelligence). At anotherlevel, the system may use a democratic approach, such that identifiersare included based on a majority use among clients. At still anotherlevel, the system may have probabilistic algorithms that are capable ofpassing identifiers into the system that meet a probability threshold,or of removing identifiers and filters that fail such a threshold.

In yet a further embodiment the system can incorporate predictive andbudgeting functions such that, in addition to reporting to a client thathe/she has spent $X on groceries in the past week, the system mightreport further that the expenditure is Y % of the average expenditureover the past ten weeks, and that an amendment to the budget is inorder, increasing budgeted expenditures for groceries by Z %. Otherfunctionality may be incorporated that is not specific to clients atall, but derived from the client's activity and the ability of thesystem to scrape the data and manipulate the data in a number of ways.The system might, for example, predict trends and timelines by virtue ofthe tracked transactions of customers. The increased cost of travel canbe accurately tracked for people in different demographics, andpredictions can be made in a generic way, of use to a broad variety ofbusinesses in developing company strategy, advertising campaigns and thelike.

The kinds of services described above may be applied to smallbusinesses, health care facilities, advertising companies, and a broadvariety of enterprises. The sources of information need not be limitedto Internet-based sites for client's accounts, but may also includepaper and cash transactions and the like.

The methods and apparatus described may also may be practiced in alanguage and platform independent manner, and be implemented over avariety of scalable server architectures.

The methods and apparatus of the present invention may be practiced viaprivate individuals on the Internet, businesses operating on a WANconnected to the Internet, businesses operating via private WAN, and soon. There are many customizable situations.

The present inventions as taught herein and above should be afforded thebroadest of scope consistent with the enabling disclosure provided. Thespirit and scope of the present invention is limited only by the claimsthat follow.

1. A system for sorting and reporting financial transaction information,comprising; a collector function executing from a machine-readablemedium, the collector function navigating to one or more networkinformation sites and retrieving therefrom transaction informationassociated with a specific person or enterprise, the transactioninformation including at least date, description and amount of thetransactions; an input function enabling a user to provide to the systema request for a summary of transactions over a specific range of dates,according types of transactions; a processing function parsing thecollected transaction descriptions for determining purpose oftransaction, using pre-stored description characteristics associatedwith purpose, and summarizing those transactions that meet the purposeand fall into the date range; and a reporting function for reporting thesummarized transactions.
 2. The system of claim 1 wherein the reportingfunction provides a total transaction amount with the summarizedtransactions.
 3. The system of claim 1 wherein a summary is provided fora first plurality of persons or enterprises subscribing to the systemaccording to requests entered by a second plurality of persons orenterprises subscribing to the system.
 4. The system of claim 1 whereindescription characteristics are developed from information taken fromcommunication between users and the system.
 5. The system of claim 4wherein a probability algorithm is used in developing descriptioncharacteristics.
 6. The system of claim 1 wherein descriptioncharacteristics are periodically amended according to furtherinformation that is collected and processed.
 7. The system of claim 1wherein the system reports to users through the Internet network.
 8. Thesystem of claim 2 wherein the system further comprises a functionstoring past transaction history associated with the particular personor enterprise.
 9. The system of claim 8 wherein the past transactionhistory is used to predict future transaction statistical information.10. A method for sorting and reporting financial transactioninformation, comprising; (a) navigating to one or more networkinformation sites by a collector function executing from amachine-readable medium, and retrieving therefrom transactioninformation associated with a specific person or enterprise, thetransaction information including at least date, description and amountof the transactions; (b) providing by a user to the system through aninput function a request for a summary of transactions over a specificrange of dates, according types of transactions; (c) parsing thecollected transaction descriptions by a processing function, determiningpurpose of transaction, using pre-stored description characteristicsassociated with purpose, and summarizing those transactions that meetthe purpose and fall into the date range; and (d) reporting thesummarized transactions by a reporting function.
 11. The method of claim10 wherein the reporting function provides a total transaction amountwith the summarized transactions.
 12. The method of claim 10 wherein asummary is provided for a first plurality of persons or enterprisessubscribing to the system according to requests entered by a secondplurality of persons or enterprises subscribing to the system.
 13. Themethod of claim 10 wherein description characteristics are developedfrom information taken from communication between users and the system.14. The method of claim 13 wherein a probability algorithm is used indeveloping description characteristics.
 15. The method of claim 10wherein description characteristics are periodically amended accordingto further information that is collected and processed.
 16. The methodof claim 10 wherein the system reports to users through the Internetnetwork.
 17. The method of claim 11 wherein the system further comprisesa function storing past transaction history associated with theparticular person or enterprise.
 18. The method of claim 17 wherein thepast transaction history is used to predict future transactionstatistical information.